Endurance
by cinnamon badge
Summary: [DracoGinny] Oneshot sequel to Hope. Ginny Weasley can't help but fear that sometimes history repeats itself.


**Author's Notes: **For months I've put off requests for a sequel to "Hope", because I really don't want to write one -- still don't. Then SecretAdmirer asked for "just a little one-shot" and well, here we are. Happy New Year!

**Endurance**

She had left England on a brilliant, early spring day, when the world seemed not to care that people were dying and being tortured in droves, families separated, innocent lives persecuted for the quality of their blood. She had never thought she would willingly come back either, not to this place that reeked of despair and pain, nor did she think she'd come back with the intention of never leaving again.

But she had.

Ginny Weasley had been in Seattle thirteen months when they left the island mansion, shining like a palace of ancient times in the dying sunlight. Draco stood with her in the sweeping front garden, an arm slung protectively around her shoulders, and they both gazed at it one last time while Pinky, Carthy, Gob, and Alecta shrank all of their worldly possessions into travel-size packages.

"I'm glad to be gone," Draco declared, looking at the mansion disdainfully. "It was never home to me."

"The Quindlens will like it here, I think," Ginny said softly. She could imagine their three children, playing on the lawns with their Quidditch gear, chasing each other on foot or on broomstick, their childish laughter ringing through the air. They could still be happy here, in this place untouched by bigotry and hate.

The Ketterings had been given control of Speedy Spouse and Helping Hands, though Draco still owned a controlling interest in both companies. The older couple had given their word that they would run the companies the way they had always been run, and continue to help the British flee their own country to the fullest extent of their abilities. They would send statistical reports and editions of W.A.N.D.'s newsletter to Draco every month by private owl post.

"Take care of each other over there," Madam Kettering said seriously to them, holding both of their hands in hers. "It's a dangerous place to be, I don't even know half of why you're going back --"

"We belong there," Ginny said simply. "It's our home."

They spent an entire day Apparating across the United States, stopping in each time zone to recuperate and rest before going on. The officials at each Point looked at them curiously whenever they presented their paperwork, for no one was going to England now -- not by choice. Ginny was too tired to deal with their pointed questions, as she tired more easily these days, so Draco handled their nosiness with his customary sharp temper.

"If you keep staring at us like that," he snapped at one official in Chicago, "I'm going to start charging admission."

Lupin had sent word two weeks earlier that he had successfully constructed an Apparition Point in his home, and that the Order had been notified about the wedding. Tonks had found Molly Weasley's wedding gown, preserved for years in a back room at Madam Malkin's, and Arthur and George were apprehensive but willing to welcome Draco to the vastly diminished Weasley family. The entire ceremony had been planned and paid for, and all it lacked now was the bride and groom.

"How are you feeling?" Draco asked her in New York, one of his hands clasping hers. They had a few hours yet to wait before they would be allowed to Apparate to Lupin's house in the moors.

"Fine," she said, smiling up at him. "It's not a terminal disease, you know. I'm all right."

"Could've fooled me," he said dryly. "You looked like a zombie last week."

"Wow, thanks for reminding me. Shall we talk about all the times I threw up, too? That was my favorite part."

"Mine as well," Draco said, rolling his eyes, and Ginny grinned and rested her head on his shoulder. He extracted his hand from hers and wrapped his arm around her, dropping a kiss on the top of her head.

"Are you looking forward to going back?" she asked, after a while in silence.

"I'm still not sure." He kept his eyes focused out the window, where Hudson Bay spread out before them and the skyscrapers of New York reached for the sky like the teeth of a metal comb. "Unlike you, I haven't been there in five years."

"It's the same in many ways," she said thoughtfully. "People go about their everyday lives, go to the theater, eat out at restaurants, walk in the streets. It's just that sometimes --" Ginny shivered slightly, and he pulled her closer. "Sometimes Death Eaters interrupt a performance," she whispered, tears coming to her eyes. "They'll come in during the dramatic scene to check everyone's identification, maybe take some Muggles away to torture."

"That's London," he whispered. "We're going to be far from all of that, away from all the big cities."

"I know that," she said. "But -- God, Draco, I just wish --"

"I know, Gin," he said, and he leaned his cheek against her red hair.

The officer that came to escort them to their private Apparition Point was the very same man who had welcomed Ginny to America a year earlier. "I remember you," Walt Bangs said to her, eyes wide. "Didn't like Seattle, I take it?"

"Seattle was fine," she said.

"My grandmother hates it," he said, shrugging, as he checked over their paperwork one last time. "Please step up onto the Apparition Point slowly, and stand at the --"

"We've done this before, thanks," Draco said coldly.

"Don't mind him, he gets cranky a lot," Ginny told Officer Bangs, smacking Draco on the arm.

It was late evening when Ginny blinked her eyes and saw that they were in a wood-paneled room, filled with old, dusty furniture and empty paintings. The delicious aroma of steak and kidney pie wafted through the air, and despite her slight nausea Ginny heard her stomach growl in protest.

The cracking sound of their Apparition brought Lupin to the room, grinning broadly at them both. "Hello Ginny, Draco," he said, shaking hands with him and hugging her. "Wasn't expecting you for another ten minutes, actually. My clocks must be slow."

"Gin, is that you?" Tonks burst into the room a moment later, her hair bubble-gum pink and an excited smile on her face. "Merlin, it's so good to see you!" She threw her arms around Ginny and spun her in a circle. "How was your trip? Are you guys hungry? What --"

Draco yanked Ginny out of Tonks's arms, a dark frown creasing his face. "Stop flinging her around like that," he bellowed, eyes flashing angrily.

Tonks clapped a hand over her mouth, eyes bugged in shock. "Oh shit," she moaned. "I completely forgot, Ginny, I didn't mean --"

"For Merlin's sake!" Ginny shoved Draco's hands away and stepped back, giving them all a furious stare worthy of Molly Weasley. "I'm not _dying_. Will all of you just calm down?"

"Sure, sorry," Tonks said sheepishly, but a second later she was her bouncy self again. "So how far along are you now, Gin?"

"Eight weeks," she said, smiling faintly.

"Had morning sickness yet? My mum told me all about how poorly she felt when she was pregnant with me..." Tonks took her arm and escorted her into the next room, talking a mile a minute, where the long trestle table was set for four.

They talked about everything over dinner -- where everyone was, what they were up to, who had married, who had had children. Draco contributed little to the conversation, instead eating his portion of steak and kidney pie in silence, and Lupin and Tonks, for their part, made no effort to include him. Ginny noticed, of course -- especially since Draco and Tonks were first cousins -- but she was so eager for news that it slipped her mind after a few minutes.

"George has started working with the recovery team," Lupin told her. "St. Mungo's made him wait several months so they could be sure of his health, but he's been joining in the searches for the missing." He offered her more food, and insisted she take as much as she wanted. "You should be proud of him, Ginny," he went on. "He's done so much for the Resistance. His recovery from that Sleeping Curse has been regarded as a sign of hope for many."

"And Luna? Are she and Mr. Lovegood still publishing the _Quibbler_?"

"Every week," Lupin said. "And there's some good news: Kingsley came across a bedraggled woman in Devon who had no memory of who she was or what had happened, but we cleaned her up and it turns out -- it was Hestia Jones."

"Merlin!" Ginny cried. "She was all right otherwise?"

"We think she might have been with Moody when he was taken down," Tonks said. "Moody told her to run for it and someone clipped her with a nasty hex that, instead of doing its intended damage, knocked her out and wiped her memory. Things are coming back to her in bits and pieces, but she's got a ways to go yet. She's in the long term ward at St. Mungo's."

"Elphias Doge was found just a few months ago," Lupin murmured. "He was too old to be doing guard duty, I told Kingsley that a thousand times --"

"Then...you mean you found his body," Ginny said sadly.

He nodded. "In Hoylake, near the Mersey River. A Squib in the area found him, and it just so happened that her sister had been in Hogwarts with him, so she recognized him at once and contacted Tonks."

"It seems I've missed so many things," Ginny said, sighing and sagging in her seat. "So much has happened since I left for America, and --"

Draco stood abruptly from the table, his chair nearly clattering to the floor in his haste, and strode briskly out of the room. Ginny watched him go, dismayed, and rewound what she had said. Had she offended him somehow?

Lupin and Tonks both looked at the door through which he had left, and then back at her. "Ginny," Lupin said slowly, "maybe you should --"

"Yeah." Ginny placed her napkin beside her plate and went running after him.

The sun had gone down hours ago, so only the stars lit the moors when she stepped out onto the porch, after having wandered through the rest of the house looking for him. A speck of light gray was moving rapidly away, led by a smaller white speck. Draco, with his wand lighting his way. He was out walking alone in the dark. _Men_, she thought, annoyed.

"Let him come back on his own, Ginny."

She turned and saw that Lupin had joined her, his face creased by a slight frown. "He'll come back eventually," he said. "I am really not fond of the idea of letting you wander around by yourself."

"Because I'm carrying the Chosen One, right?" Ginny said bitterly. "Heaven help us if anything should happen to him."

Lupin looked at her, startled. "Ginny, I never --"

"I know, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything." Without warning, she burst into noisy tears. "It's just -- damn these bloody hormones! I can't go a day without sobbing my heart out. Draco's upset about something, I have no idea what, and I feel like I'm going to be sick _again_, and --" Lupin smiled in commiseration and handed her a clean handkerchief; Ginny took it gratefully.

When they stepped back inside, once Ginny had stopped crying, they found Tonks standing in the tidy living room holding a small bundle in her hands. Ginny opened her mouth to ask what it was, but Tonks reached for her hand and squeezed it first. "Ginny," she said, "George and the recovery crew were at Godric's Hollow about two weeks ago. They found some things that George thinks you should have. They're not much, but..." She bit her lip and looked to Lupin.

"I know it might be painful to see them again," he said gently, putting a hand on her shoulder, "but no one else deserves to have them."

"What are they?" Ginny asked.

Tonks led her to an old steamer trunk that served as a coffee table, and they all sat around it on lumpy armchairs. She undid the bundle and laid it flat on the table, and Ginny had to swallow back the lump in her throat that came upon seeing just what was inside. Things, such small, seemingly insignificant things, that she had been sure were lost, and yet somehow...here they were.

She had to touch them, to see that they were real, so the first two items she picked up were a matching set of plain golden rings, each one engraved on the inside with the word _Forever_. "Ron and Hermione's wedding rings," she whispered, smiling at them in the palm of her hand. "Mum was so angry when they got married without telling anyone." She set them back down and picked up the next thing.

"We weren't sure what that was," Lupin began, just as Ginny burst out laughing and said, "A Portable Swamp! This must've been in Fred's pocket!"

"Didn't they set off one of those at Hogwarts, before they left?" Lupin asked.

"Yeah, dead useful they were," Ginny said reminiscently. "They stopped many Death Eaters in their tracks during battle."

"George also found part of Fred's wand," Tonks said, "but he wanted to keep that for himself. It's really a wonder it wasn't completely destroyed after the battle."

"And this is from Mum's robes," Ginny said in awe, as she picked up a pretty, leaf-shaped clasp. "Dad gave this to her for her birthday one year. Merlin, how did they ever find these things?"

"They've been very thorough," Lupin said simply.

"And --" Her hand stopped over the next and last item, which had been broken into two mangled halves. "Oh God," she breathed.

"George found those himself," Lupin said, bowing his head, "under a mound of ashes and rubble." Ginny saw him wipe surreptitiously at the corners of his eyes. "Everyone present started crying when he did."

Ginny picked up the two pieces of Harry's familiar National Health glasses, and weighed them in her hand. They had snapped right at the bridge, where they always did, and the arms were bent and twisted at the hinges. The plastic coating had come off one end, singed away by fire, and the other end was stained black with smoke. He had been wearing these when Voldemort cursed him. He had been wearing these when he died.

"I miss him," Ginny whispered, gazing down at this last bit that was left of him. "Every day. I miss him so much."

"We all do, Ginny," Tonks said, getting choked up herself. "Harry was such a great bloke."

"I find myself thinking about him all the time," Ginny said. She couldn't tear her eyes away from his glasses. "He was so young, too young." She chuckled and looked at Tonks. "Mum always told me that a girl never forgets her first love. Reckon she was right."

A floorboard creaked, and the three of them looked up to see Draco standing there at the other end of the room, gazing down at Ginny dispassionately. She wondered in a sudden panic just how much he had heard. "I'm tired," he announced. His hands were clenched into fists, his mouth set in a straight line. "I was hoping you could show me where we're sleeping, sir."

"Certainly," Lupin murmured, and, with an unreadable look for Ginny, he stood and led Draco upstairs to their bedrooms.

An awkward silence descended as Ginny replaced Harry's glasses and Tonks rewrapped the bundle. "Gin," the Auror ventured carefully, after a decent interval, "how are things between you and Malfoy?"

"Oh -- no, please don't judge our relationship just on what you've seen tonight," Ginny said quickly. "He's -- well, Draco can be difficult at times..." She bit her lip. She wasn't winning him any sympathy points at all this way.

"Well -- Remus and I wondered," Tonks said, not quite meeting her eyes. "I mean, the prophecy clearly says that the two of you will bear the Chosen One, but -- I mean, we weren't sure if it was by choice or not."

Ginny felt a cold hand clamp down around her heart. "What are you saying?" she whispered.

"Gin, my uncle is a raving murderous lunatic Death Eater," Tonks said bluntly, eyebrows drawn together. She took both of Ginny's hands in hers. "There's no way you can convince me that his son isn't at all like him."

"He isn't," Ginny insisted. "Draco has saved close to six thousand people with his businesses, helping them escape to America."

"Yes, but those people are faceless strangers," Tonks said. "That's just him thumbing his nose at dear old Uncle Lucy. How does he treat _you_?"

She could see, now, what the older woman was angling at. "You mean is he marrying me just so his heir is legitimate, or because he really cares about me?" she said flatly.

Tonks winced. "Ginny --"

"I'm tired too, I think." She got to her feet and forced a yawn. "Maybe you could show me where we're sleeping."

"Remus put you in separate rooms," Tonks said, as she reluctantly stood and led Ginny upstairs. "He thought he should act in lieu of your father -- since the wedding's tomorrow and all." She led her down a long, narrow hallway, lit by a few guttering gas lamps in wall brackets, and took her to a room in the far end of the house. It was on the small side, but warm and cozy, with a big cedar wardrobe dominating one side of the room, and a bed in a large wooden frame sitting under a window that looked out on the lonely landscape.

"Malfoy's room is at the other end of the house," Tonks said, "and Lupin's room is between them." When Ginny raised her eyebrows, she said, "Werewolves have exceptional hearing."

"Where are you sleeping?"

"At my flat in London," she said. "I'm Apparating there in an hour or so. Good night, Ginny."

"'Night." She watched as Tonks went back down the corridor, her head bent.

The room was well-heated, so when Ginny put on her pajamas and crawled into her bed, she could almost imagine Draco was with her, curled up behind her the way he always did, his slow breaths skimming across her skin. The moors were absolutely silent, so unlike the constant sound of waves rolling against the rocks in the Puget Sound, and within the house itself nothing moved.

He did love her. She was sure of it, no matter what Lupin or Tonks thought. He hadn't actually said it, but it was in everything he did, and ever since she had taken the pregnancy test and gotten a positive result, he had treated her with an unspoken tenderness that warmed her to the core. No, she had no doubts how he felt about her. She just wished she knew why he was acting so strangely.

She had trouble falling asleep without his familiar presence beside her.

The wedding ceremony went by so quickly, Ginny scarcely knew it had actually happened. It was only by looking down at the engagement ring, and the new wedding band on her finger, that she knew she was, at last, married.

Arthur and George were the first to arrive that morning, bringing their best dress robes with them. Her father teared up as he hugged her, as did George, and they told her how happy they were for her.

"If he's the one," Arthur said, "then I wish you all the best, Ginny."

"He treats you badly," George vowed, "his arse is mine." They went to see Draco afterwards, and Ginny was relieved that no explosions or shouted curses came from that wing of the house.

The other Order members, what few were left, trickled in throughout the day, starting with Hestia Jones's arrival with a St. Mungo's orderly -- "Ginny dear, yes I remember you, but for the life of me I just can't remember who you're marrying?" -- and ending when Kingsley left his shift at Gringott's a scant hour before the ceremony. They all assembled in the Great Room, the largest room in the house, in chairs arranged into neat rows. Tables of food, prepared by Draco's house elves, lined the walls, for the reception that would follow the exchange of vows.

Sturgis Podmore would be casting the Marital Vow, as he was the only one that had done it before, and he had no prior prejudices against Draco -- the first was a known fact, but the second Ginny only learned a week later, much to her embarrassment. Podmore stood at the head of the room, rocking back and forth on his heels, while everyone else talked amongst themselves.

Molly's wedding gown had swum on Ginny at first, since she had lost so much weight during her years of exile. Madam Malkin herself refitted the gown, which was still lovely and like new, and Ginny sobbed in Tonks's arms as she wished that Molly could have been present and helping her dress instead.

And then, just like that, it was time, and it was done. Ginny remembered seeing Draco, resplendent in expensive black dress robes, standing beside Podmore with his eyes only on her; she remembered her father kissing her cheeks before he gave her away; she remembered Draco's cold fingers sliding her ring on; she remembered the thrum of energy that surrounded them when Podmore cast the Marital Vow. It was done. They were married.

The witnesses applauded raucously, catcalling and shouting with joy, and all of the women flocked to Ginny to hug her and kiss her cheek and ask her how she was feeling and any number of other nosy questions that Ginny really didn't think they had any right to ask. She was so surrounded by people, walled in by their bodies and voices, that she couldn't see Draco, not at all, to rescue her and just take her away somewhere quiet. Kingsley said his goodbyes first, for he had only been able to spare a few hours, and after grabbing some food he was gone. Then one by one everyone else trickled away, back to their lives and hiding places, and the warm glow of witnessing a wedding had faded.

George sat with Ginny by the table, as she worked through a second plate of food. "Never pictured your wedding would go quite like this, did you?" he said.

"Mum would've been here," Ginny said quietly. "And Bill and Fleur, and Charlie, and --"

"Everyone," George said. He reached down and took her hand. "Are you happy, Ginny?"

"Yes," she said, with conviction. She gave him a small smile and squeezed his hand. "Are you?"

"Getting there," he said, tilting his head to one side.

"Aren't we all." She looked across the room, where Draco and Arthur were speaking with one another. Draco turned and his eyes met hers for a full second, before he looked back at her father and went on talking.

They left as the sun went down, painting the moors blue and purple, and Tonks and Lupin made themselves scarce after everything was cleaned up and returned to rights. She found Draco in the kitchen, gazing out at the darkening sky, hands in the pockets of his trousers. Ginny slipped one of her hands in with his, and he twined their fingers together.

"Something's bothering you," she murmured. "Something's been bothering you since we arrived, really. I want to know what."

"It has nothing to do with you," he said.

"It certainly does now," Ginny said, looking up at him. "I just became your wife, if you haven't noticed. Your problems are my problems."

His chest heaved in a sigh, and she rested her head against his arm, waiting. "All these people," he said. "They're all your friends. They all know you and like you or your parents."

"Tonks is your cousin," Ginny said, but Draco shook his head.

"I'd never met her before last night," he said, lifting one of his eyebrows at her. "My mother disowned hers, remember?"

"True..."

"None of them like me," he said angrily, "and none of them made any attempts to hide it. All they can see is my name, and the way I look, because I look just like_ him_. Lucius killed Ron and Granger, and he's probably killed the relatives of quite a few of those people back there. That's all that matters to them."

"You know that's not --"

"It is, Ginny," he spat, finally turning to face her. "I'm nothing to them. I'm the sperm donor for the great Chosen One. That's all."

Ginny felt like she'd been slapped in the face. "Is that all you want to be?" she demanded.

He blinked, startled. "Are you mad?" he said. "I married you, didn't I?"

"Is that all you want to be?" she repeated, stepping away from him.

"You're not so innocent in all this, you know," he snapped. "I heard what you said about Potter. You're still in love with him, aren't you."

"He's dead, Draco!" she cried. "He's _been_ dead, for years! Do you seriously think he's competition?"

"How am I supposed to know? You were going on about first loves --"

"Because he is," she said, squeezing his hand. "Nothing's going to change that. But I love you too, Draco, and you're here with me now, and I wouldn't have done anything differently."

He shifted uncomfortably. A pinkish blush colored his ears and cheeks, and he lowered his face to hide it. "Fine. Ginny -- I don't want to just -- just stand on the sidelines on this, all right? I'm not going to let everyone else fuss over you if I can't as well."

Ginny eyed him cautiously. "What did my dad say to you?"

Draco sighed again. "The usual father things. Take care of you, take care of the baby. If I ever made you the slightest bit unhappy, he would see to it that I never saw you or my son again."

"Bloody _hell_," Ginny moaned, burying her face in his shirt. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and wrapped his arms around her. "Why can't everyone just get along?"

He snorted. "Because they can't," he said, and though it sounded flippant, there was an underlying note of sadness in his voice. "Why do you think we're in the middle of a war? Because people just can't play nice with each other."

"I won't let them treat you badly," she promised, looking up and meeting his eyes. "If he ever speaks like that to you again, I don't care if he's my dad, I'm going to hex him."

Draco gave her a half-smile. "My heroine," he murmured, before he bent and brushed his lips against hers. Ginny's eyes fluttered closed and she deepened the kiss, snaking her arms up and around his neck.

"Tonight's our wedding night, Mr. Malfoy," she purred, giving him a lascivious grin. He rested his forehead on hers, grinning right back. "The reception is over...the guests have all left..."

"Perfect," he said, kissing her again, and there weren't any more words for a long, long time.

Spring passed with alarming haste, as did summer, the days melting into one another in a sameness of blue skies and warm winds. Lupin's home was completely isolated from the rest of the world, so the only people they saw were ones that chose to visit: Arthur came every now and then, to check on his baby girl and impending grandson, and Tonks was over nearly every evening for dinner and to play Exploding Snap with Ginny. After about a month, Ginny forced Draco to join them, and a tentative friendship began between the two cousins. It turned out that Tonks could be just as snarky as Draco, and Draco found he could appreciate her sense of humor.

"We're all family now, after all," Ginny pointed out. "I'm your first cousin by marriage. We should all get along."

"That you are, Gin," Tonks said. "Why you put up with this git, though, I'll never know --"

"I'm fantastic in bed," Draco said, and when Ginny blushed furiously, Tonks threw her head back and laughed.

Ginny watched in fascination as her belly expanded and rounded, but only at first, for then she had to deal with jumping up to go to the loo every few hours, and her aching back, and her endless appetite. Tonks helped her pick out maternity clothes, and Lupin made sure she ate healthy food at every meal. Draco took her on long walks through the moors, their hands clasped together between them, and he made her laugh at his hilarious stories. Merlin, she loved how he made her laugh.

"Have you thought of a name yet?" he asked her abruptly one afternoon, while he helped her cross a shallow creek that wound through Lupin's property.

Ginny opened her mouth to give him an answer, and found she had none. "Not really," she admitted.

"Oh." They went farther, across the creek and down into a shallow valley, the clouds scuttling over the sun above them. "Well..."

Ginny grinned as she realized what he wanted to say. "You've been thinking about it."

"No I haven't," he said, too quickly.

She laughed. "Yes, you have. Tell me what you've come up with."

They stopped at the crest of the next hill, gazing out at the vast expanse before them. Ginny rested a hand on her belly, now somewhat more than a tiny bump under her shirt. "Narcissus isn't that strong a name to give to a boy," he said. "It implies he's vain and self-centered."

"True," Ginny said, secretly relieved she wouldn't have to give her son such a pretentious name.

"I don't know if there's a male form of your mother's name," he went on. "And there's no way in hell I'm going to name him Lucius."

"No," she agreed. "But -- I'm not terribly fond of my father's name either. Too old-fashioned for me."

"I thought -- I can't believe I'm saying this." He blinked, and his face twisted into a grimace. "I thought we'd name him for -- maybe one of your brothers?"

Ginny smiled at how uncomfortable he obviously was, and kissed his cheek. "Let's not name him for anyone," she declared. "There's just too many options that way. Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, Ron -- but there's also Harry, or Neville --"

Draco looked horrified. "We're _not_ naming my son Neville."

"Exactly," Ginny said, laughing. "So we'll come up with something completely new --"

"Nicholas."

Now it was Ginny's turn to pause and blink in shock. "Well -- I meant after we've thought it over and discussed --" She frowned thoughtfully. "Actually, I think I like Nicholas too."

"Nicholas Malfoy it is, then," Draco said, smirking at her. "There. I've just saved us months of needless arguments."

"What would I do without you, darling?" Ginny said dryly.

They told Lupin and Tonks their decision when they returned to the house, and both of them wholeheartedly agreed with their choice.

"But really, you're asking the wrong people," Tonks said. "I mean, his name's Remus for Merlin's sake, and I'm _Nymphadora_."

"Wait, that's actually your name?" Draco said incredulously. "I thought Gin was having me on."

Ginny tried to fall asleep in his arms that night, the way she had now for several months, but found she couldn't. She was restless, anxious, full of energy. Cautiously, so as not to wake Draco, she slid out of bed, pulled on her dressing gown, and left the room.

Though it was September now, the air was still mild enough for her to pretend it was summer, and so she did. Ginny went out on the front deck and sat down heavily on the middle step, gazing up at the stars twinkling in the sky. They were more visible here than in Seattle, or in London, and she tested herself to see how many of them she could remember from Astronomy and Hermione's notes. Nicholas stirred inside her, so she rubbed her stomach and murmured soothing words. She remembered her mother saying something about babies being able to hear their mothers, and the idea was a comforting one. "It's all right," she whispered, "Mummy's here."

She should have remembered that Draco was a light sleeper. If she had, then she wouldn't have been surprised when he sat on the step above her, not twenty minutes later, one leg on either side of her body, and rested his chin on her shoulder. "Mm," he said sleepily, stifling a yawn. "Why are you out here?"

"Couldn't sleep," she said, distracted. He had put his arms around her and placed his hands on her belly; Nicholas kicked at his touch at once. "He knows his father," she said, smiling a little.

"Gin," he said. He brushed a kiss behind her ear. "What's troubling you?"

Her lower lip trembled, and suddenly she was near tears. "I -- I can't stop thinking -- about --"

"About what?" he said patiently, speech still slurred from sleep.

"Lily and James Potter," she whispered.

He tensed behind her.

"What if Voldemort knows the prophecy, Draco?" she said. She gripped onto his hands desperately, her knuckles going white from the effort. "What if he knows?"

"He doesn't," Draco said. "I asked Lupin about that last week and he said as far as the Order knows, the Dark-- Voldemort still doesn't know."

"But it can't be kept a secret forever," she said. "And when he does --"

"Ginny." He tightened his arms around her, and pulled her closer against his chest. "We have the protection of the entire Order. We're miles away from any civilization. We're safe here."

"He killed them to get to Harry," she said. "It didn't matter that they had a Secret Keeper, Voldemort found them anyway. Would you die to save me?"

He didn't answer her.

"I'm just so scared, Draco," she said, at last succumbing to her tears. She wiped at them halfheartedly. "I mean -- not only do I have to deal with all of this prophecy bollocks, I have swollen ankles too. I'm twenty-one years old, and I'm going to be somebody's mother? I don't even know where to start! I've never given birth before, I'm petrified that something's going to go wrong and I'll bleed out and _die_ or something --"

"Gin."

"And it isn't just any boy is it, no, we're going to have the bloody Chosen One, and have nutters like your dad coming after us trying to kill us --"

"Gin."

"We don't even have a place to live, really. Malfoy Manor is swarming with Death Eaters, I'm never going back to London again --"

"Ginny."

She stopped, catching her breath. "It's just so much," she said, turning into his chest. She pressed her cheek against his dressing gown, and heard his heart beating steadily under her ear. "We're so young, Draco, and we've been just thrust into this massive, unbelievable fate. What are we supposed to do?"

"Do you think I have any more answers than you?" he said. "At least you have a parenting model to draw examples from. I haven't the slightest idea how to be a father."

"You'll be wonderful," she insisted, but he shook his head.

"Lucius's idea of parenting was to beat me with his cane for the slightest infraction," Draco said, his voice tight and controlled. "And if I wasn't displeasing him, I didn't garner any attention from him at all."

"Well, at least you have a good idea of what _not_ to do," Ginny ventured. She was rewarded by a chuckle that rumbled deep in his chest. "So we're both absolutely clueless. We'll help each other."

"I'll make sure you don't forget to change him," Draco said, smirking.

"And I'll see that you don't drop him on his head," she shot back. He laughed and kissed her.

They sat on the steps together awhile, in comfortable silence, and Ginny realized that, despite all of her fears, despite the terrible state of England and the world and everything -- she felt safer in Draco's arms than she did anywhere else. He rubbed her belly idly with one of his hands, in slow circles, and little Nicholas kicked every now and then. In three months, three short months, their lives were going to change forever, but she wouldn't be alone. They wouldn't be alone.

Ginny had started to nod off when he lowered his lips to her ear and made her come wide awake again. "I would die to save you," Draco whispered, "but as long as I'm alive, I will never let anyone touch you or Nicholas without suffering for it."

Ginny smiled into the darkness, happier than she had been in a long time. "Overprotective wanker," she murmured.

She felt him grin into the crook of her neck. "And yet I hear no complaints."

"None at all. I love you, Draco."

He said it finally, for the first time, and for what she vowed would not be the last time.

"I love you too, Ginny."


End file.
